And So it Goes...

Monday started with a reading of the play. George said "How funny that the first time we hear this thing out loud is actually our first performance as well... how nice for the actors as well."

It did seem rather strange though, the actors reading together for the first time surrounded by a ring of people. Sitting in that ring listening to it I realized that this is a very still, very intimate play. It's very funny but it's also devastatingly sad. To find that balance will be so important as we get the play on its feet. So too will be remembering that those things... funny and sad... are not mutually exclusive... remembering that in fact they live in exactly the same place within us.

But of course we had things to talk about after the reading. First and foremost why is god's name do we only have three weeks of rehearsal including tech. Well a few days ago George said something to me about preferring terror over complacency when it comes to this piece. He would rather the actors be a little scared than bored. I'm trying to convince myself that this makes sense and I'm sure the actors are attempting to do the same. We had to talk about mental illness... to say that this is a play "about" schizophrenia makes it sound like something it's not. But it's there and so we talked about it. Working on "This is Wonderland" for three years plus countless more in research, George has seen the way the most vulnerable members of our society so easily slip through the cracks of the justice system, the way putting these sick people in jail is like trying to fit a round peg in a square hole... something that I'm sure will be in our minds as we continue the rehearsal process.

We also talked about Vonnegut... who he is and why he's in this play. My attachment to him and what he means to me personally as a writer and more importantly just as a human being who lived on the same planet as me is too embarrassing to make a matter of public record (although I kind of already did...) so for now I'll try to keep it in the context of And So It Goes. Going back to things being funny... well no matter how awful things got for him and the world in general (and they got pretty bad... think the bombing of Dresden) Vonnegut was always able to see that most of it was also hysterically funny. And I suppose that's what he's doing in this play. Because as one of the characters says "Bad things happen." And they do... but we're laughing a lot in the rehearsals for a play that makes me cry every time I read it.

- Courtney Walker, assistant director

"Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind." - Kurt Vonnegut